Email from C&RT about works in London

[Graham and Jo]

I received an email from C&RT today about National Grid towpath work in London. Apparently I received it as Dotterel had been seen in London recently. This was a bit of a surprise as she has not been south of Marsworth since we bought her in 2006. 

 

So either their sighting system is unreliable or someone is impersonating Dotterel. 

 

I have asked them which of these two possibilities is right. 

 

Can you see the records of sightings of your boat anywhere? 

 

Cheers Graham

[Arthur Marshall]

You can ask CRT for a printout of the sightings. There again, it's known that they aren't exactly accurate!

Edited July 3, 2020 by Arthur Marshall

[Lily Rose]

Me too.

 

First paragraph of an email from CRT today...

 

"I am contacting you because Canal & River Trust records show that your boat has been in London recently, and we are doing our best to ensure that we reach everyone in the boating community who could be affected by the update in this email."

 

 When I was last on my boat for the day, Tuesday last week, it was in a marina in Warwickshire. In my 5 years of ownership the nearest I have come to being in London is down the GU as far as Marsworth a few years ago and, the following year, down the Thames as far as Teddington.

 

Either someone has stolen my boat from the marina and taken it to London in the last 10 days or the CRT system has issues.

 

I wonder which is more likely?

 

 

 

[philjw]

I had exactly the same email.  It must be 10 years since the boat was in London but I expect to be dropping down to Brentford in the next couple of weeks. Maybe mine has been stolen too.

[TheBiscuits]

 

As Arthur says, you can request your log from CRT - just email customer services is easiest and don't forget to include your boat details.

 

The most likely reason is that a checker mistyped an index number on a spotted boat and ended up with yours.  If there are repeated sightings of your boat in London, then someone has probably got an incorrect number (accidentally or deliberately!) on a different boat.

 

[Graham and Jo]

4 minutes ago, Lily Rose said:

Me too.

 

First paragraph of an email from CRT today...

 

"I am contacting you because Canal & River Trust records show that your boat has been in London recently, and we are doing our best to ensure that we reach everyone in the boating community who could be affected by the update in this email."

 

 When I was last on my boat for the day, Tuesday last week, it was in a marina in Warwickshire. In my 5 years of ownership the nearest I have come to being in London is down the GU as far as Marsworth a few years ago and, the following year, down the Thames as far as Teddington.

 

Either someone has stolen my boat from the marina and taken it to London in the last 10 days or the CRT system has issues.

 

I wonder which is more likely?

 

 

 

Glad it is not just me then. Perhaps someone has stolen three boats!

 

7 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

You can ask CRT for a printout of the sightings. There again, it's known that they aren't exactly accurate!

I might just do that, I will wait for their reply to my query.

 

Cheers Graham

[Tracy D'arth]

I must stop cloning other folks boat details.?

 

Understand that this work will take 2 years, to remove old oil filled cables, and reinstate the towpath 2 metres wide.

Crazy, get the pikeys in and they will have the lot out and weighed in by Monday.?

[pearley]

9 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

I must stop cloning other folks boat details.?

 

Understand that this work will take 2 years, to remove old oil filled cables, and reinstate the towpath 2 metres wide.

Crazy, get the pikeys in and they will have the lot out and weighed in by Monday.?

But within a month the surface will all be lifting and the phone number you have never answers.

[CV32]

I received the same email today - not been south of Whilton Marina since we bought GLAD in 2017 .... I have asked them to explain why they think we have been in London recently. 

[Alan de Enfield]

All of the above just goes to show that the C&RT 'track & trace' enforcement system is anything but 'fit for purpose'.

 

Just think if it was the other 'way' and you'd all got a nasty "you haven't moved enough", "we have no record of movement", "use it or lose it" ! letter.

[matty40s]

I remember the time when the late great Lawro Hogg received a call from the Wolverhampton office about his boat Barnet being reported as overstaying up the Shroppie somewhere. 

He asked the lady who called him to look out of the window and let him know if Barnet was still moored where she should be in the basin.

An affirmative response and Lawro said we can end this conversation now cant we.

[system 4-50]

11 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

All of the above just goes to show that the C&RT 'track & trace' enforcement system is anything but 'fit for purpose'.

Much more likely that somebody mistyped the seletion criteria for the email target.

[Jak]

I got this too. Nowhere near London for more than 5 years. Someone got it wrong for sure!

[matty40s]

4 minutes ago, system 4-50 said:

Much more likely that somebody mistyped the seletion criteria for the email target.

Well if the Watford Flight has moved to the NW like yesterdays email said, perhaps London has moved as well.

[nbfiresprite]

Unlike a road vehicle where to buy a set of replacment number plates you need to provide Proof of Identity and Proof of Entitlement. With boats no requirement is need for a new set of plates. You can apply any old index number, your average boat checker is unlikely to tell the diffence between a colecraft and a hudson. In most cases if your boat name and index number is cloned, all you get is the standard display your licence or move on letter. If your no longer on C&RT waters, you may get the pay your licence fee now letter. I had the last type of letter, a few years back in BW days, a boat displaying my index number on the GU paddington Arm where I not been since 2003. To prevent this sort of thing,  Simply add a photo of the boat to the licence record so that a boat checker can confilm that the index number matches the boat.    

[matty40s]

I left the London area on Old Friends in May 2011 and haven't been South of Cosgrove since. I also received the email today.

Theres only one of this name registered so it would be easy to spot dual sightings in the World Leading Data Management system used (sorry, thought it was a Covid thread for a minute then)

[Ray T]

 

[Mike Todd]

3 hours ago, Tracy D'arth said:

I must stop cloning other folks boat details.?

 

Understand that this work will take 2 years, to remove old oil filled cables, and reinstate the towpath 2 metres wide.

Crazy, get the pikeys in and they will have the lot out and weighed in by Monday.?

Would I be right in think that that expression has previously been considered against the forum rules>

[magnetman]

I didn't receive this email. Two of my boats have been predominantly in London for the last ten years. One on a mooring and one cc ing. Both have my email address attached to the licenses. 

 

Strange goings on. 

 

 

Edited July 3, 2020 by magnetman

[john6767]

 

I received the email and the boat has never been near London.  I have replied to CRT asking for them to supply details of where they believe they have seen the boat.

[ditchcrawler]

Well this looks like one of three threads on this topic

[Alway Swilby]

3 hours ago, Tracy D'arth said:

I must stop cloning other folks boat details.?

 

Understand that this work will take 2 years, to remove old oil filled cables, and reinstate the towpath 2 metres wide.

Crazy, get the pikeys in and they will have the lot out and weighed in by Monday.?

But they wouldn't have upgraded the towpath afterwards! Canal & River Trust has agreed with National Grid that the towpath surface will be upgraded and, where possible, widened to a minimum width of two metres.

[john6767]

I have just had a reply from CRT on this matter, so they were prompt in doing that.  Seems like someone messed up on the SQL to extract the data.

 

Quote

Dear John,

 

Thank you for your message in response to the communication that went out today about National Grid works at Little Venice in London. You have raised the concern that the Canal & River Trust has data that says you were recently in the area where the works are due to take place. Having looked into the matter and consulted with colleagues, it is the case that we have in fact not got your details on our system as having been in London, we can see that you were not in the area, and therefore you were sent the message about the National Grid works by mistake.

 

There was a mistake in the way in which we downloaded the data to try to ensure we had captured everyone that had been in the area, so areas outside of London were unintentionally included.

 

I sincerely apologise for the unnecessary concern that our mistake has brought you and we hope to learn from the error and be better at future correspondence. Please know that the matter we are informing people about today is of such importance that we wanted to make sure we contacted everyone who might be affected, and in doing so we contacted more people than we intended to.

 

Thank you so much for letting us know about our mistake, it helps us to provide a better service to the boating community.

 

[matty40s]

19 minutes ago, john6767 said:

I have just had a reply from CRT on this matter, so they were prompt in doing that.  Seems like someone messed up on the SQL to extract the data.

 

 

Sing along now...

"Theres Only One John on Firefly"

[manxmike]

You think you've got problems......

Here on the Isle of Man the Douglas Promenade (2.5 miles) is being resurfaced. They are allowing 6 years for it, but it's already running late. They actually got three quotes for the work and went for the most expensive that was to take the longest to complete. A similar stretch of road in New York USA was completed in 12 hours, including replacing the water, gas, sewerage and electricity. It also cost less to do.

Don't you love bureaucracy in its manifold forms.

 

Please don't mention brown envelopes and used notes of different denominations.